SOFIA
It stayed with me. Not what he said or the structure of it but the certainty.
You’re still here because I allow it.
I didn’t go back to my room immediately. I didn’t move through the house the way I usually did, measured, aware of every shift, every position, and every angle that had been tightened over the last few days. This time, I walked without thinking about where I was going.
That was a mistake. Not because I got lost, but because I stopped paying attention. The corridor narrowed before I registered it, one of the smaller passages that cut between sections of the house. Less used. Less monitored, at least visibly.
I slowed. That was when I heard it: a faint shift behind me. Not one of his. That recognition came faster now, clearer.
I turned. Nothing. But the feeling didn
